


A Cure For What Keeps You Up

by WhyAreYouLaughing



Category: RWBY
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Post-War setting, or really innocent love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 14:53:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16997106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhyAreYouLaughing/pseuds/WhyAreYouLaughing
Summary: “You know, when your shift on watch finishes, you are supposed to wake up the next person in rotation.”Or Weiss notices that Ruby can’t sleep, and decides to help.





	A Cure For What Keeps You Up

Ruby looks younger in the moonlight.

Weiss glances at her team leader silently. The red-cloaked girl was polishing her scythe. Something that the Schnee had long since realized was a nervous habit.

They were in the most secluded area of the clearing that their team claimed as a campsite for the night. The four of them still had quite the journey ahead of them to back home after finishing their mission of clearing Grimm.

“You know, when your shift on watch finishes, you are supposed to wake up the next person in rotation.”

Ruby looked up as she instinctively tightened her grasp on her weapon, preparing for the surprise appearance of one of their numerous foes.

She instantly relaxed when silver eyes came in contact with a pair of blue. A tired smile settled on her face, “Yang didn’t sleep well last night, and I was up for the extra shift.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow, obviously not impressed with the reply. “Although good-natured, I don’t believe that your sister would appreciate the gesture.”

Ruby pulled the mechanism that caused Crescent Rose to switch forms, soon it converted to it’s gun-mode.

She swiped the cloth over the sides, then carefully cleaned the trigger. “It’s not like I was going to get much sleep anyways.”

Weiss sat down next to her teammate, the damp grass pressed against her palms, “And why is that?”

Ruby closed her eyes and lowered her head so that she was facing the ground, “It’s his birthday today. Qrow’s. That’s why Yang didn’t want to fall asleep yesterday.”

Weiss bit her lip. She didn’t expect that, though it explained the recent behaviour of the two sisters. A surge of regret flowed through her.

The man who gave up his life in the battle against Salem deserves something as simple as having the day of his birth remembered.

_You don’t die until your name is spoken for the last time._

It’s a quote that she read in a book long ago, before everything that happened.

Before friends were buried six-feet under in formal clothes that she knew they would have hated.

Before that ferocious final fight against Salem that caused her to worry every moment in it that one of her loved ones were going to fall and not get back up.

Still, it fits.

Because someone was put down permanently in that last clash. Finally, the bad luck that followed Qrow just as strongly as the smell of whiskey claimed him.

Looking at Ruby now, she continues to think about how amazingly similar the two had looked; the scythes, the capes, that same tilt to their mouth when they smiled.

Weiss wonders if Ruby thinks that as well when she gazes into a mirror.

Well, if anyone knows what it’s like to be afraid of what’s shown in a mirror’s surface, it’s her.

The somber expression painted on her face turns into a determined one, “Lie down, Ruby, and don’t clutch Crescent Rose to your body again, you know it makes your fingers bleed.”

Her leader slowly did what was asked of her, although there was confusion in her eyes, “What-“

Weiss gently placed a hand on Ruby’s chest, causing the younger girl to cease her talking, “Close your eyes.”

There have been enough wars that they fought in together for Ruby to trust her partner completely, so again, she complied.

Suddenly a light pressure appeared on her shoulder. Ruby opened her grey orbs reflexively, but closed them when she saw that it was Weiss.

The Schnee was using her shoulder as a pillow, and due to their height difference, their feet extended to practically the same place.

It was rare for Weiss to initiate contact, even after all this time, so it took Ruby by surprise. However after a moment, she got over her shock.

“We can’t sleep, someone needs to keep watch.” She quietly argued, yet her eyes remained shut.

“The idea of having assigned night guards was absurd at best, we are in the middle of an area that we were literally paid to cleanse of Grimm, and there is no other hostile life around.”

Ruby would probably have kept up the discussion, but she did honestly want to fall asleep, and that probably wouldn’t happen without Weiss by her side.

Some part of her missed the war, if only for those fleeting moments of peace when all of her team would rest practically on top of each other.

Blake and Yang’s presence would never fail to calm her down, but it was Weiss who she had always been the closest to in those group huddles.

So she just stopped thinking for a bit, and fell asleep under the midnight sky.


End file.
